-; 



260 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



Vi 



advantage thus gained, or from the direct action of climate; 



I yet we must not quite ignore the latter agency, for there is 

 good reason to believe that some inherited effect is thus 

 produced. "' 



We have seen in the second chapter that the conditions 

 of life affect the development of the bodily frame in a direct 

 manner, and that the effects are transmitted. Thus, as is 

 generally admitted, the European settlers in the United 

 States undergo a slight but extraordinarily rapid change of 

 appearance. Their bodies and limbs become elongated; and 

 .^r I hear from Colonel Bernys that during the late war in the 

 f United States, good evidence was afforded of this fact by 

 the ridiculous appearance presented by the German regi- 

 ments, when dressed in ready-made clothes manufactured 

 for the American market, and which were much too long for 

 the men in every way. There is, also, a considerable body 

 of evidence showing that in the Southern States the house- 

 slaves of the third generation present a markedly different 

 appearance from the field-slaves." 



If, however, we look to the races of man as distributed 

 over the world, we must infer that their characteristic dif- 

 ferences cannot be accounted for by the direct action of 

 different conditions of life, even after exposure to them for 

 an enormous period of time. The Eskimos live exclusively 

 on animal food; they are clothed in thick fur, and are ex- 

 posed to intense cold and to prolonged darkness; yet they 

 do not differ in any extreme degree from the inhabitants of 

 Southern China, who live entirely on vegetable food, and 

 are exposed almost naked to a hot, glaring climate. The 

 unclothed Fuegians live on the marine productions of their 



*' See, for instance, Quatrefages ("Revue des Cours Scientifiques, " Oct. 

 10, 1868, p. 124) on the effects of residence in Abyssinia and Arabia, and 

 other analogous cases. Dr. RoUe ("Der Mensch, seine Abstammung, " etc., 

 1865, s. 99) states, on the authority of Khanikof, that the greater number of 

 German families settled in Georgia have acquired in the course of two genera- 

 tions dark hair and eyes. Mr. D. Forbes informs me that the Quichuas in the 

 Andes vary greatly in color, according to the position of the valleys inhabited 

 by them. 



^^ Harlan, "Medical Researches," p. 532. Quatrefages ("Unit6 de I'Espece 

 Humaine, " 1861, p. 128) has collected much evidence on this head. 



